Darker Shades in Jaded Eyes
by Verassi
Summary: There are two sides to every coin, a yin to every yang, two worlds, light and dark; equal but not alike... When one crosses into the other, a ripple is formed and only a muddled gray is left. Or the one where Villain Izuku stumbles into Hero Izuku's world


AN: Villain Au's are fun and I've had this idea for a long time now, so I hope you enjoy :D

* * *

Well, he was screwed.

Or, more like, mildly inconvenienced.

Regardless, he wasn't in an ideal situation… Actually, nothing about this situation was normal—or right. All around him were trees—a forest?—and the sky taunted him with its bright blue expanse. No, none of this was right.

Izuku looked around, hoping to find something, anything, to help make sense of his situation.

He shouldn't be in a forest. He hadn't been in a forest only moments ago. Now, Izuku knew his memory was average at best, and not something to entirely rely on, but he was pretty sure he would have remembered wandering into a forest, especially if he had just been in the middle of a fight.

A quirk? Teleportation possibly? That didn't explain the clear sky though—there's no way the clouds could have just up and vanished into thin air… unless he had been teleported far enough away… but that wasn't right. Something about that explanation didn't satisfy him. Still, it was the only explanation he could think of—he'd just have to be wary of anyone with that possible quirk once he found them—them being those punks he had been fighting—again; if he could navigate out of the forest, that is.

Izuku's gut twisted, momentarily causing him to stop. It almost felt like a pull, like someone or something had been trying to yank him back towards them or it. It left a cold, hard weight in the pit of his stomach—a bad omen for sure.

Over the years Izuku had learned to trust his gut, and right now, his gut was telling him something was wrong, very wrong.

Everything about today had screamed _off,_ and now his doubt-filled thoughts seemed to be coming to fruition.

The mission—it wasn't a mission so much as it was a self-proclaimed declaration because he was bored—he had gone on should not have been as much trouble as it ended up being; the vigilantes that he had encountered had been awfully prepared to fight him specifically, his partner not so much; the fight had been going too smoothly for anything but disaster to follow.

All of it added up to one thing: something was _wrong_.

It really shouldn't have come as a surprise. If Izuku thought about it, lots of people were out to get him. He had built up quite a reputation over the last couple of years, these last few months specifically.

That didn't mean it wasn't annoying when some wannabe vigilantes tried to attack him when he had just been going to the nearest convenience store—why he had been at the said convenience store was another matter.

He sighed as he continued to trudge forward.

The forest itself wasn't dense, it was more akin to a grove of trees than an actual forest as he was easily able to traverse through it. There was a seldom patch of brush here or there, but otherwise, the forest was utterly bare.

Izuku shook his head, "Stupid vigilantes, thinking they can just warp me away…"

Now that he thought about it, the quirk could have been a warp quirk, similar to Kurogiri's quirk. If that was the case… well, he knew how rare Kurogiri's quirk was which begged the question: had Kurogiri warped him?

That didn't make sense though, Kurogiri wouldn't have any reason to warp him, and if he had it surely wouldn't have been to a forest. No, the quirk had to be a coincidence.

Izuku continued his walk, muttering all the while and occasionally tripping over a stray root. He wasn't the most dexterous of people, at least, not at the moment it seemed. During a fight, Izuku prided himself on his agility and quick-footedness.

It wasn't too long until his aimless meandering of the forest floor brought him to its edge. The area that lay before him was strangely familiar.

"This… this almost looks like—" He cut himself off as he realized where he was. He couldn't believe—of all the places in he could have stumbled upon. It had been a long while since he had last made an appearance here.

There was a reason he didn't go there anymore.

Some tragedies needed more than time to heal.

It had been years, _so many years_ , since it happened, but the memories burned fresh in his mind. Even to this day, the jagged scar that ran down his arm reminded him of that terrible night.

The night when his dreams morphed into nightmares.

Izuku stopped, unconsciously gripping his right arm, trying to stifle the memories as they came to him. He looked down at his arm… freezing as terror gripped him by what he saw. It wasn't _his_ arm. It couldn't be.

Scars spider webbed up _his_ arm, with a long jagged one marking him from his elbow down his forearm, but when he looked at his arm now… there was nothing. A few scars adorned his hand, but not nearly enough to make up the riddled mess his arm had been not even hours ago.

 _Something was wrong._

He whipped his head up and gazed over the courtyard before him, the cold headstones stared blankly back at him. A cold gust of wind blew through him.

Izuku turned away from them, not able to stand their uncaring gaze.

"This has to be the work of a quirk, there's no other explanation…" he muttered to himself, clenching his fists. It had to be. There just was no other reasoning here… but then, what was the quirk? Transportation? Healing (of his scars)? A combination of both? He was missing something. If he could just figure it out, he was sure he'd be able to fix this mess he had found himself in.

He was startled out of his musings by an all too familiar feminine voice, "Izuku? I never thought I'd see you here…" It was a voice he'd dreaded hearing again, "I was just walking by when I saw you. What are you doing here, Izuku?"

Izuku was frozen, horror struck as she spoke. Her voice was calm, pleasant even, not a trace of the anguished cries that had marred it the last time they had spoken… but then Bakugo Mitsuki had always been a strong woman.

He turned to face her, "I, uh, was just—" he cut himself off. He didn't have an explanation… but more importantly: why was Mitsuki even talking to him? She hated him, didn't she? Or, at the very least, she couldn't stand being in his presence for longer than necessary.

He didn't need to answer appropriately it seemed, as Mitsuki continued, "Shouldn't you be at Alliance Heights right now… or did you get permission to visit Inko?"

The question was innocent enough on the surface, but there were two things disturbingly wrong with what she had just said. One, was the facts that Alliance Heights was for the U.A. students; and, even more troubling was the fact that Mitsuki just mentioned his mom… but she… she was dead.

What the hell was going on?

Nothing was right; everything about this situation was just… wrong.

"Ah, no… I was just," he said shakily, hoping Mitsuki wouldn't notice, "I should probably head back now." He turned heel and started to walk away, not giving any explanation as to where he was 'heading back to'.

Mitsuki called to him, her voice as sweet as ever, "Okay, it was nice seeing you, and next time you see him, tell Katsuki he better be staying out of trouble."

Izuku stumbled then.

He must be going crazy… "K-kacchan?"

"Yeah, tell that little shit he better not be causing trouble for you or any of his classmates." Though the words were rather uncouth, the inflection had been endearing enough… and sincere.

This told Izuku one thing: either she was delusional, or he was, because, from where he was standing, both his mom and Kacchan had been dead for years.

He didn't turn to meet her—he didn't think he could, instead, he nodded stiffly and walked away.

This couldn't be right… there had to be something else at play here. Nothing made sense, not the people, not the location he had been tossed into, and not the lack of scars that adorned his arm.

It begged the question: what exactly was going on, and how could he reverse it?

Was it reversible even? Or was this something permanent? He didn't think want to think about that at the moment, so he focused on trying to reverse it.

There had to be something he could do… someone who could fix it… though the question was, who could he go to? It had to be someone he trusted. Could he even trust anyone anymore? Well, it wasn't like he _really_ trusted anyone anyway. This world was full of liars, and his friends were some of the biggest frauds he had ever had the misfortune to meet—he loved them dearly and would not hesitate to fight anyone who disagreed… actually, he had, on more than one occasion.

However, there were two people he trusted with his life. If he could find them, even just one of them, maybe he could figure out whatever was going on.

Though… finding them was a different matter. Izuku was fine when it came to general directions, or _he_ thought he was, but the truth of the matter was… him trying to navigate someplace he was unfamiliar with was like someone who was quirkless trying to be a hero: impossible. He didn't know _where_ he was, nor did he know where he was going. Finding those two, as elusive as they were, was going to be an entirely new can of worms.

Izuku just didn't have the patience to find them right now anyway. As much as he was loath to admit it, Izuku was enervated, even his bones were weighing him down.

As Izuku walked, his feet dragging, the fatigue became more prominent. He shouldn't be this tired—he hadn't done _anything_ noteworthy enough to cause this kind of exhaustion… but then, maybe that quirk, or whatever the hell it was, had something to do with it.

Either way, he was drained, of both energy and strength. He needed to find a safe place to sleep—any alleyway, abandoned building, anything really would do. Izuku was within the city limits now, he could see the buildings towering in the sky.

He was familiar with the city—he couldn't navigate it with precision, his partner usually did the navigating—but he _could_ navigate it well enough… though, as he neared, this city felt foreign to him, not at all like the city he had grown up in. The buildings were wrong, no, not wrong, more like… misplaced. Walking through it, he felt like he was looking in a mirror: everything was there, but his perception of it was skewed ever so slightly.

He could have sworn that the theatre had been on the left side of the street… from this direction at least, but here it was, taunting him on the _right_ side of the street. Wearily, he scanned the area for any viable place to spend the night—though, by the looks of the sun beating down on him, it was closer to noon than dusk. Eh, naps were never _not_ an option.

He didn't care what time it was, he felt like he could sleep for a week. Actually, he had… once… that had been a _rough_ week.

He shook his head of the thought.

 _I don't like this. I don't like this one bit—I need to figure just what the hell is going on… but first, I need to find a place to rest. I don't know why I'm so tired. It must be the quirk that's sapped me of all my energy. This_ _has_ _to be the work of a quirk. But… what_ _exactly_ _did the quirk do?_

Trying to dispel the odd inquiries from his mind, Izuku continued to walk through the city, taking in the familiar-but-not-quite-right sites. He passed by a bakery with pastries on display in the window—it was weird, he mused as he had never seen nor heard of this bakery before—when he caught sight of his reflection.

Izuku stopped.

Instead of seeing his reflection, he just saw a knock-off copy of himself—and not even a good one at that. He had the same messy mop of green hair as always, the unruly curls running wild. He looked about the same height, and he was wearing a white T-shirt that said 'T-Shirt' which _was_ something he would wear—it wasn't what he _had_ been wearing, but it was still something he would wear. So, if anything his impeccable style hadn't changed… but then… he looked at his face, more specifically, his eyes.

They were both a brilliant hue of emerald, shining diligently in the glass.

That _wasn't_ what he had been expecting. It looked wrong, seeing two perfectly normal eyes ornamenting his face.

Very wrong.

Faintly, his hand went to touch his right eye, not quite believing what he was seeing. It was one thing for his injuries to have healed… it was another for his eye to have regenerated completely.

What _had_ previously been the muddled almost-brown green of his iris, had been replaced with his natural sparkling green hue. It had been so long since he had seen his eyes the same color, not since…

On shaky feet, Izuku took a step back. This—he clawed at his eye—wasn't—it couldn't just be back—right. _None of this was right. Not his eyes, not his looks, not this whole goddamn world._

He bolted.

He didn't know where he was going, and he kept his head down, but he didn't stop. Exhaustion gnawed at him, and he stumbled a few times, but he didn't stop until his feet had carried him far away. He was panting by the time he turned a corner and found himself in an alleyway.

Oh good, a dark alleyway hidden in shadows. Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong in a place like this. Still, despite the distinctly ominous mien of the place, Izuku remained there, deciding it was better to try and calm himself down in a shady alleyway than out in the streets. Right now, discrepancy was vital.

This was crazy—this whole thing. Everything was so odd, the same but somehow different. It was like an entirely different world, but that couldn't be right… so it had to be a quirk, right? If it was a quirk, then it was a powerful one..

It could be some kind of illusionary quirk, or perhaps a nightmare quirk—he'd been struck with one before, and they were not fun.

"What's a kid like you doing in an alleyway like this? Shouldn't you be out with friends or something?" A menacing voice taunted from somewhere beyond his line of vision.

And there went his moment of peace.

He looked up to see a person coming from the wall. It was an odd sight, and it threw Izuku off a little bit, seeing a man just straight up come into being from the wall. He had seen stranger, of course, but it was still kind of jarring and unnatural.

Izuku just rolled his eyes at the villain wannabe. Even the lowliest of thugs new to leave him alone… if they valued their lives and sanity.

"You think so?" Izuku parried. "And what about you… shouldn't you be out robbing a convenience store or something of that caliber? Seems about your speed." He quirked an eyebrow—confused and slightly freaking out or not, snarky commentary had always been a fun hobby of his.

The supposed villain—he figured any guy trying to mug, if that's what he was even doing, a teenager was probably a villain, though a pretty low tier one—was clearly not amused with his witty banter. A shame, really. Izuku thought he was pretty clever, if he did say so himself, and he did… a lot.

"You think you're funny punk," the villain (wannabe) said, trying, but failing, to intimidate Izuku. "Guess I'll have to teach you a lesson in manners."

See, the problem was, when you were as experienced with these situations as Izuku was, though he usually wasn't the one getting mugged in a dark alleyway, it was tough to be intimidated.

So, instead of quaking in his shoes, he stood firm, crossing his arms and deadpanned, "Uh-huh. I'd just _love_ to see you try."

He smirked when he saw the villain—at this point he wasn't sure he could call the person a villain anymore, they hadn't even tried any underhanded tactics yet—trembling with rage.

In a way, Izuku was glad this guy had stopped him, it took his mind off the pressing issues that he _really, really_ didn't want to think about.

He saw the guy's arm twitch, indicating that he was going to attack; in retaliation, Izuku activated—or rather, tried to—his own quirk. Much to his ire, his quirk didn't react in the way it should have. While he did, indeed activate a quirk, it wasn't…. his quirk. Green lightning crackled to life, engulfing him in a cowl.

He staggered backward until his back hit the wall, not used to the fire running through his veins like this. _What the hell is this? This isn't my quirk… this is… what the hell is going on?_

Luckily for him, the other guy was just as unprepared for his green-lightning-quirk-thing as well, because he fumbled a bit, backing away from him and blending back in with the shadows.

As much as Izuku wanted to teach this thug a lesson, his own worry, and anxiety at the arising problem he was facing forced him to make a tactical retreat. He fled.

With the lightning covering his entire being, he ran faster than he ever had before. Though his speed was impressive, his control was lacking… a lot, and therefore he crashed into walls more than he was willing to admit.

As he ran, not taking in where he was going, he thought about all that had happened today, from the very beginning to now, to try and figure out what just what the hell was going on. It just didn't make any sense.

The day had been typical, like any other day before it. Sure, he had run into a crew of vigilantes, but they were—they should have been—easy to deal with. In fact, if he recalled correctly, and since there was no one her to refute him it was correct, his partner and him had been about to lay those vigilante's to waste when he ended up in the forest. He still didn't know how that had happened, and it was bothering him to no end. He hated not knowing things… but he knew someone who would—if they couldn't help him, then he was royally screwed.

The green lightning continued to spark to life even after he had stopped several blocks away, in another abandoned alleyway, from where that wannabe villain had been. He gritted his teeth in frustration at that—he had run away, only cowards ran away. He wasn't a coward.

Izuku knew he needed to calm down, think things through clearly and figure out what exactly was happening, but that was easier said than done. How could he calm down when everything was topsy turvy and wrong.

He took a few calming breaths, the lightning that was this new, unknown quirk he somehow possessed, was still flashing across his being, covering him in its green cowl-like state. He clenched his fist, he really didn't know what to make of the quirk; it appeared to be some kind of speed-enhancing quirk, possibly. It had made him faster, but it would be naive to think that was the only thing it could do. Quirks often had layers, they weren't just what they appeared to be at the surface level.

This quirk was powerful, he could tell, just by the way the energy it emitted burned through his veins. He wasn't using it at full power and, much to his disdain, he wasn't confident he could use it at full potential without injuring himself in the process. The more he thought about it and looked at the way the quirk manifested, the more he thought it might be a strength augmentation quirk—a really strong one.

Izuku rolled his eyes; strength augmentation quirks were overrated, and he hated them with a passion.

"Of course, I get the _one_ type of quirk I despise the most." He quipped to himself as he leisurely started to walk—of course, he had dropped the quirk before blending in with the public.

It had to be around six now, with the sun as low as it was, and his earlier fatigue came back full force. As exhausted as he was, there was still something Izuku had to do. He just didn't know where to find him. Izuku didn't expect to find him in his usual hideout, not when everything here was so messed up from what he was used to.

As he wandered, ignoring everyone on the street, he noticed all the signs and posters advertising up and coming heroes. There were a few he recognized, such as Hawks and Miruko, but there were others that he had never heard of either.

This didn't bode well; Izuku was well versed with _all_ of the heroes in this area, even the underground heroes didn't go unnoticed by him… but these were… these were some of the highest ranking heroes, and he had never heard of them.

That settled it, he couldn't waste any more time leisurely strolling through the city; he needed to find All For One. If anyone knew what was going on and could fix it, it was his dad.


End file.
